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The global solar headlines you need to know this week for your business decisions.

India Launches International Solar
Alliance of over 120 Countries

India’s prime minister has unveiled
that he would lead an international solar alliance of over 120 countries with
French president, François Hollande, at the Paris COP21 climate summit. Narendra
Moditold a press conference that
as fossil fuels put the planet in peril, hopes for future prosperity in the
developing world now rest on bold initiatives. “Solar technology is evolving,
costs are coming down and grid connectivity is improving,” he said. “The dream
of universal access to clean energy is becoming more real. This will be the
foundation of the new economy of the new century.” This will mean more
opportunities for solar across the world and that can only be positive for
combating climate change.

Modi went on to describing the solar alliance as “the
sunrise of new hope, not just for clean energy but for villages and homes still
in darkness, for mornings and evenings filled with a clear view of the glory of
the sun”. The Indian government is investing an initial US$30 million in
setting up the alliance’s headquarters inIndia.
The eventual goal is to raise US$400 million from membership fees and
international agencies.

India has set a clear mission to use
cheap solar to connect citizens who are currently without access to the
electricity grid in remote and rural areas.

Dubai has launched an ambitious energy strategy which
includes making rooftop solar mandatory from 2030. The Dubai Clean Energy
Strategy 2050 also sets a renewable target of 75%, with intermediate goals of
7% by 2020 and 25% by 2030. These objectives speed the pace of the emirate’s
transition from a previous 15% target for 2030 set in January of this year.

The
utility-scale Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park has also been increased
in size, first from an initial 1GW to 3GW earlier this year, and now to 5GW by
2030. Total investment in the site is estimated by state utility DEWA to be
US$13.6 billion.

US,
Japan and South Korea set to install 1.4 GW of energy storage by 2016

For the first time, South Korea, Japan
and the US, respectively, are set to exceed 100MW of annual energy storage
installations, says research house HIS. Highlighting the lack of commercial
energy storage deployment, the three markets are forecast to account for 59% of
global installations in 2016. Between 2015 -2016, they are set to install 1.4
GW of new capacity. Large-scale system costs, meanwhile, are expected to fall
significantly by 2019, which will spur global growth.

Sam Wilkinson, solar supply-chain and
energy storage analyst for IHS Technology says, between 2015 and 2016, the U.S.
will install 650MW of energy storage, while Japan will see 510MW and South
Korea 280MW. Although deployment in other regions will increase next year, most
markets are still in the test, pilot and demonstration phases.

According to a new report from GTM
Research and SoliChamba Consulting, the global market for utility-scale PV
operations and maintenance (O&M) will grow to 390GW by 2020, that’s almost
triple the estimated 133GW expected by the end of 2015.

Just like the larger PV market, the
global PV O&M market has been growing at a fast pace these past few years.
And unlike the EPC business, it remains attractive even when new construction
slows, as seen in Germany, where the addressable O&M market for megawatt-scale
plants exceeds 11GW in 2015 despite a drop in new megawatt-scale plant
activations.